A rather odd thing happened between 2023 and 2024 - before Christmas, the mouse I used at work, a Steelseries Rival 310 worked just fine.
After Christmas, in the new year when I came back to work, the mouse had stopped working except for the button click. This was very odd, nothing in the leadup had even suggested there was a problem.
I put this to one side and figured i'd take a look at it 'sometime' (we all know that feeling!).
Well, that time finally came, when I came across it again while tidying.
The fact the buttons worked fine and all the RGB meant that the cable itself was fine - the odd thing is, when I started moving the mouse, it 'jiggled' the cursor a little bit. Taking a closer look at the sensor to see if there was dirt/debris in there, I saw the lens itself was cracked wide open - a large split right down the middle. It didn't look like it had thermally cracked or split - it's as though something like a blade or something sharp had been shoved in there and it was 'carved'.
Hmmmm. Curious....
I used a knife to cut away the burrs around the split and tried moving the mouse again - more limited movement - so it confirmed the sensor was fine too, it was just the lens!
These SteelSeries mice use something called an ADNS 'TrueMove3' sensor - which after some digging turns out to be a slightly customised version of the Pixart PMW3310 sensor.
A trip to AliExpress was in order because lets face it - eBay is a bit hit and miss and these things are all made in China anyway for pennies.
I couldn't order just the lens, so I had to order a new PMW3360 sensor and lens combo which looked identical to the PMW3310 in the mouse. It was around £6 and not going to break the bank, so eh, no big deal.
Anyway - after removing the slider pads and finding some philips screws underneath, taking the top off was a doddle.
I took the scroll wheel off as that was held in place by the spindle being a socket fit into the actual rotary encoder and a single screw that has a PCB with the RGB LED to illuminate the scroll wheel.
After removing the PCB from the base, the lens, which is just loosely press fit against the sensor on one side, and sitting in a cutout on the base, fell right out.
The lens from the new PMW3360 sensor was a perfect fit, literally identical and it's nice to have a spare sensor, just in case!
Fitting it all back together again and it just came back to life - Steelseries Engine noticed it just fine, all the RGB still works and I can set the sensitivity with no issues, moving the pointer at 1200cps is smooth!
The next job is to replace the slider pads, as the ones that came off are a little brittle and they don't stick brilliantly well. That's a cheap thing though - £3-4 for some new 3M ones.
Considering that these mice still sell for around £35 to £40 new - £6 and a little patience was absolutely worth it - all in all, i'm very happy with how this turned out - finally, i can stop using the godawful stock Dell mouse i've been forced into using at work!
After Christmas, in the new year when I came back to work, the mouse had stopped working except for the button click. This was very odd, nothing in the leadup had even suggested there was a problem.
I put this to one side and figured i'd take a look at it 'sometime' (we all know that feeling!).
Well, that time finally came, when I came across it again while tidying.
The fact the buttons worked fine and all the RGB meant that the cable itself was fine - the odd thing is, when I started moving the mouse, it 'jiggled' the cursor a little bit. Taking a closer look at the sensor to see if there was dirt/debris in there, I saw the lens itself was cracked wide open - a large split right down the middle. It didn't look like it had thermally cracked or split - it's as though something like a blade or something sharp had been shoved in there and it was 'carved'.
Hmmmm. Curious....
I used a knife to cut away the burrs around the split and tried moving the mouse again - more limited movement - so it confirmed the sensor was fine too, it was just the lens!
These Steel
A trip to AliExpress was in order because lets face it - eBay is a bit hit and miss and these things are all made in China anyway for pennies.
I couldn't order just the lens, so I had to order a new PMW3360 sensor and lens combo which looked identical to the PMW3310 in the mouse. It was around £6 and not going to break the bank, so eh, no big deal.
Anyway - after removing the slider pads and finding some philips screws underneath, taking the top off was a doddle.
I took the scroll wheel off as that was held in place by the spindle being a socket fit into the actual rotary encoder and a single screw that has a PCB with the RGB LED to illuminate the scroll wheel.
After removing the PCB from the base, the lens, which is just loosely press fit against the sensor on one side, and sitting in a cutout on the base, fell right out.
The lens from the new PMW3360 sensor was a perfect fit, literally identical and it's nice to have a spare sensor, just in case!
Fitting it all back together again and it just came back to life - Steelseries Engine noticed it just fine, all the RGB still works and I can set the sensitivity with no issues, moving the pointer at 1200cps is smooth!
The next job is to replace the slider pads, as the ones that came off are a little brittle and they don't stick brilliantly well. That's a cheap thing though - £3-4 for some new 3M ones.
Considering that these mice still sell for around £35 to £40 new - £6 and a little patience was absolutely worth it - all in all, i'm very happy with how this turned out - finally, i can stop using the godawful stock Dell mouse i've been forced into using at work!
